Legalectric

The Dept. of Commerce was instructed by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to include routes for the Dodge County Wind project to include existing transmission corridors. Commerce didn’t haul out a transmission map at the time to say “WHAT WOULD YOU SUGGEST” and instead chose “routes” that run right through the heart of Dodge Center, and which would, with a 150′ easement, not only tower over residential neighborhood but would displace rows of homes because the easement edge would run right through the houses!

CLICK HERE for Dept. of Commerce Dodge County transmission site.

CLICK HERE for Commerce’s INTERACTIVE WEB MAP

Here’s what it looks like from the sky:

CLICK HERE for City of Dodge Center page on this transmission proposal.

City of Dodge Center is missing the boat in suggesting people wait to let Commerce know how bizarre, unconstructable, and most importantly, how many people would be displaced, how many homes would be bulldozed, to build a 345kV transmission line with 150 foot rights of way through town. The time to send WRITTEN comments to Commerce is NOW, because when the DEIS is released at the end of June (probably, though maybe later), it should say that those routes through town should not be further considered as they just won’t work.

Send comments, with photos showing existing transmission in relation to your home, your neighbors’ homes, to:

suzanne.steinhauer@state.mn.us

The sooner you weigh in the easier it is to alter the outcome. In the case of administrative proceedings, you snooze, you lose.

The City of Dodge Center needs to get on this too, NOW. Why? It’s in the City’s interest to have routes through town and through these neighborhoods stopped, to assure that they don’t go forward in the environmental review. If you’re in Dodge Center and are concerned, contact your City Council representative:

DODGE CENTER COUNCIL MEMBERS CONTACT INFO HERE

Comments must be in writing, phone calls don’t count (though you can get more information that way, by calling Suzanne Steinhauer: (651) 201-2251).

DODGE THIS TRANSMISSION LINE!

Inadequate — and REMANDED! Here’s the Appellate Court decision, just out:

Bottom line:
However, the commission acted in a manner unsupported by substantial evidence and arbitrary and capricious when it determined the FEIS adequate despite its failure to address the issue—raised during scoping and in public comments on the DEIS—of how an oil spill from Enbridge’s Line 3 project would impact Lake Superior and its watershed. Accordingly, we reverse the commission’s adequacy decision and remand for further proceedings consistent with this decision.

Love it when that happens…

On Tuesday, Jewell Jinkins Intervenors had filed a Motion to Supplement the EIS in the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line project.

Neither the applicants nor the PSC were enamored with the idea. Here are their responses, filed yesterday:

In short, they say ALJ has no authority to order a Supplement to the EIS, and that anyway, this route idea is not new, is not substantial. Oh, really? And to suggest that we wait, WAIT, until briefing! Wait until the hearing is OVER, to argue that the EIS is inadequate? Oh, right, that’ll go real far. And of course, then it’s not “new,” is it!

We have a status conferenc on June 13, 2019 at the PSC to deal with whatever is left hanging before the following week’s hearing. We’ll see how that goes.

Hot off the press, errrrr, just received email:

Reminder, the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) is holding a public meeting tomorrow to gather input about the Public Utilities Commission’s public engagement processes. 

Other Ways to Comment

If you are unable to attend the meeting, you may send us written comments through our website.  Or, you may e-mail legislative.auditor@state.mn.us or Laura Schwartz, the project manager, at laura.schwartz@state.mn.us. 

Timeline

We do not have a deadline for comments.  However, we will use the input we receive tomorrow to help us shape the evaluation, so the sooner the better.  Most of our evaluation activities will occur throughout the summer, and the final evaluation report is planned for release in early 2020.  You may send written comments about your experiences with the Public Utilities Commission’s public engagement processes throughout the evaluation, but we encourage you to send them early. 

Meeting Details

Date:  Friday, May 31, 2019

Time:  10:00-11:00 AM

Location:  State Office Building, Room 10, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155

Privacy

Please let us know if you would like to share comments confidentially.  OLA has the authority to protect your identity through Minnesota Statutes 2018, 3.979, subd. 3(c).

Laura Schwartz | Program Evaluation Manager | Office of the Legislative Auditor | Program Evaluation Division

140 Centennial Building, 658 Cedar Street, St. Paul, MN 55155 | 651-296-1232 | Fax: 651-296-4712

  Office of the Legislative Auditor

www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us

April 11, 2019 was one of those days at the PSC of Wisconsin (Massive Agenda at PSC tomorrow, and we’re at the tail end – April 10, 2019). As expected it went poorly, and the Commission stamped all the dockets, the two Badger Hollow (9697-CE-100) and Two Creeks (9696-CE-100) solar siting dockets (CPCN granted despite no solar siting rules); the two Badger Hollow (9697-CE-101) and Two Creeks (9696-CE-101) transmission dockets, and the joint Two Creeks and Badger Hollow acquisition docket (5-BS-228), allowing MGE and WPSC to buy the approved project’s CPCN and to build them, the new “site and acquire” model. You can review these dockets at DOCKET SEARCH HERE and plug in any and all of the docket numbers above.

Today written orders came out on the Badger Hollow solar siting CPCN and the acquisition docket. The acquisition docket is a must read, methinks they doth protesteth too much!

And don’t forget this intense Order where the ALJ gave Quarles, Commission Chair Valcq’s former firm, what for about their unreasonable acts:

Quarles deserved every blistering word of that Order.

Methinks they doth protesteth too much!